Start the Machine
by i-effed-it-all-up
Summary: After a crippling accident, Haruka is left in pieces. Michiru puts her together again. Told in short snippets. I try to update a lot. AU, HaruMichi, full summary inside. Review if you please.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: Haruka was the track star of Mugen High School, until a brutal accident rips her love of running from her, seemingly forever. She returns to school the next year shattered, weak, and sick inside. Can Michiru put her back together?**

**Chapter 1**

Your name is Haruka Tenoh, and you are as worried about your first day back to school as any normal kid would be.

But you're not just any kid. You're Haruka Tenoh, track star and heartbreaker. Girls and boys alike melt under your intense green gaze, and you have a confidence that could move mountains.

Or at least, you did.

You feel like an entirely new person, and not in a good way, not at all. You've lost weight, you know it. Where there used to be lean muscle there is now only skin and bone. The hoodie you wear used to be only slightly baggy, but now it practically swallows you whole. Sometimes you wish it would. It hurts you to look in the mirror, so you stopped a few weeks back.

However, weight is not the only thing you've lost.

You shuffle up the cement walkway towards your high school, which at one time had held great promise for you, a future, but now only holds a desperate need to return home immediately.

You take slow steps, like your mom kept telling you, and still you feel winded, exhausted before you even reach the doors. But you refuse to use a wheelchair. Why bring more attention to _it _than _it _deserves?

You can feel the stares as you bring the forearm crutch down at the same time as your left leg. That very leg is the one ailing you, both physically and emotionally. It has torn your insides apart and left you with nothing, this disability you now have.

You are Haruka Tenoh, and last year you lost your leg above the knee, along with your pride and very future, in a grisly car crash.

You haven't been the same since.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

You are Michiru Kaioh, and you are pretty positive that that's Haruka limping into school with a crutch fastened to her forearm.

You haven't seen her since the accident, when she was moved to a hospital in another state to receive better care. So, naturally, your first reaction is happiness, excitement, and relief.

However, as you near the blonde tomboy, something is so off about her that your emotions take a U-turn towards shock and concern. You can already tell she isn't the same. Sure, the crutch is one indication, but that's not what worries you.

She is thin. So, so very thin and pale and… _sick-_looking. She hunches her shoulders and appears very small.

This is wrong. Something is terribly, terribly wrong.

And you're going to find out what.

As you take purposeful steps towards your best friend (and possibly soul mate) you notice the way her left pant leg billows with each step and hugs that leg a little too close. Why is that leg so thin? Maybe she'd broken it, and it's still weak. Fresh from the cast, even, which would explain the crutch.

You smile widely as you approach the taller girl (despite managing to look so small, she is still a few inches taller than you.) "Haruka!"

She flinches violently, and your smile falters, until she turns and smiles wanly. "Michiru. I missed you."

And suddenly you're hugging. Her crutch bumps your leg, but you don't mind. She feels fragile in your arms, and there's a slight trembling in her back, beneath your hands. You frown into her oversized sweatshirt.

"How are you?"

"G…" she falters, swallows. "Good."

Your fingers dig into Haruka's back, making little pie-wedge shadows in the fabric of her hoodie.

"Liar."

And just like that her shoulders bunch up, suddenly tense.

"What about you?" You smile.

"I'm better now that I know you're okay." You confess. You'd spent many a sleepless night worrying about her. No one bothered to contact you about her condition.

But when she pulls away and you look in her eyes, you can tell she's not okay, not really.

You strive to fix that, no matter what.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

You remember the first time they fitted you with your prosthetic leg. There was a socket for your damaged leg to slide into (you hate the word stump). Straps formed a harness around your waist, so it would stay on. From the knee down was pure metal and the foot was made of carbon fiber and rubber.

You cried the first time you put it on. It didn't hurt, not badly, and it looked kind of cool, in a badass Terminator sort of way. You'd even gotten a neat design laminated onto the socket. But all you could think as you took slow, uncertain steps between two metal bars was _I can't run in this, _and the tears rolled down your face as you gasped and choked.

You spent days in your room after that, watching old videos from your track meets and feeling sick to your stomach, and a little like you were drowning. You felt suffocated, felt your heart being squeezed and ripped by desperation.

You have the same dream every night now. A dream of running, of the pavement moving easily beneath you as if your feet are moving the ground istelf. The sky is bright and you are happy. You usually wake up smiling.

And then you remember, and you cry instead. You've never cried so much in your life, but that feeling of pain and loss has burrowed deep in your heart, and you're not sure you'll ever be able to get it out.

You sigh in relief as you drop your weight onto the chair at your desk, lowering your crutch to the ground. It took you quite a while to get to your first class, hobbling and limping and pausing for breaks the way you did. Thankfully, you'd made sure to arrive early, and you still had 10 or so minutes to just relax before class.

Because nobody shows up until the one minute bell, the classroom is still empty, a fact for which you are very glad. You can't imagine limping into the room with all eyes on you. You're much happier sitting in the back, waiting for the class to fill in and hopefully ignore you.

The teacher returns at this moment from an errand, and her face lights up when she sees you. "Ms. Tenoh! Welcome back! How are you doing?"

"Better," you say, attempting to flash your old, charming smile, but you can tell it doesn't have the same effect as it once did when the teacher returns it with a large amount of pity and sadness in her eyes. She discusses your dismissal and how you will be allowed to leave five minutes early, and tells you to let her know if you need to leave earlier than that, and you smile and nod at all the right moments. Before she walks away, she startles you with a rough hug and a choked "I'm so sorry this happened to you, but remember, we all still love you."

She rubs a hand through your short blonde hair and walks away, and you spend the beginning and entire remainder of the period fighting back tears.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

It's third period. You're not sure, but you think Haruka's been crying.

Her eyes are sort of red and glowy, and sparkle with an unnatural brightness. Her face is flushed, her hair tousled as if hands have been gripping it in desperation. She sits at her desk with an exhausted little sigh, and you feel a wave of compassion for her.

It's just you and Haruka for the next few minutes before class starts. Your second period is right down the hall, and you're not big into socializing, so you get to third hour pretty quickly.

You put on your happy smile again and sit in the desk beside the blonde tomboy. She barely registers your existence, instead staring at the folded hands that rest on her desk.

"So," you say cheerfully, and that gets her attention. Her brows raise and her eyes glance at you. She blinks tiredly, as if coming out of a daze. "This means we have lunch together."

Haruka smiles, a real smile, as she realizes this, and you feel a certain warmth in your gut at having brought this torn soul some semblance of happiness, no matter how small. "You're right," she agrees. "Shall we sit together?"

"Of course! I would like that," you say honestly.

"Me, too," she says, and looks like she means it.

For the rest of the period you study Haruka from your seat in the back row. She sits in the second to front row, a little to your left, so you can see some of her face. Her eyelids droop and her head nods a few times, and each time her body gives a startled little jerk to keep her from falling. You smile because it's cute, but then you frown because you're concerned. Is she still so weak and in bad shape that she can't even keep her eyes open? It makes you wonder.

You resolve to ask her about this, and about her leg, at lunch.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Michiru has questions. You know she does. And so you dread lunch, dread having to tell her what's really going on, what really has you hurting, both physically and emotionally.

On the physical side of the spectrum, your hip and calf hurt from unintentionally vaulting onto your toes in order to be sure your bad leg has room to swing through, based on a deeply rooted fear of falling. Your bad leg also aches a considerable amount, and you are still on pain meds for the residual limb but you left them at home. Walking still takes quite a bit of effort, and you have to take slow, measured steps, leaving you huffing.

All in all you're pretty drained, and by the time you get to lunch you're pretty sure you don't even have the energy to eat. You pick one of the tables closest to the door, pull out your bag lunch, and then fold your arms and bury your face in them with the intentions of sleeping and never waking up.

That is, until a very high voice shrieks "HARUKAAA!"

Your head shoots up, only for you to be blinded by a considerable amount of blonde hair.

"Odango," you gasp in surprise, and then you smile and return the hug, absorbing Usagi's never-ending happiness and light. You feel a bit lighter when she lets you go.

"Ooh Haruka! How are you doing? We were all so worried for you! Are you all better now?"

You smile weakly at her. "I'm much better, thank you, Odango." She frowns, and you curse yourself for not being a more talented actor. "Where is everyone else?"

"Oh, I think only Setsuna has this lunch, and Michiru as well, but everyone else has B lunch."

"I see," you say, feeling a bit relieved. Explaining the details of your condition will be easier with less people, and you know Usagi won't be able to keep quiet about it and end up telling everyone else herself, making it even easier on you.

"Oh, I didn't know you had this lunch, Usagi," a calm voice floats from behind you, and there is Michiru in all of her beauty. Beauty that you'd really missed during your time away. You can't help taking in her lustrous aqua curls, her bright blue eyes and her feminine curves. And then you rip your eyes away, because looking at her like that will only come back to bite you in the end. How could Michiru ever return your feelings?

"Haruka? Harukaaaa." You're broken from your reverie by Michiru waving her hand in your face. "You're pretty tired, huh?"

You nod silently.

"How come? And why do you have to use that crutch?" She looks at you innocently. You knew it was coming, and yet it still brings a nervous lump to your throat. You shift uncomfortably under both her and Usagi's gazes.

"I um… well… Okay." You take a deep breath, and Michiru's brow furrows in worry over your apparent inability to speak suddenly.

"When I was in the… the accident… um, I hit the railing, right? On the side of the road. And it came through the front of my car and it… it sliced my leg, right at the knee. Um…. They couldn't save it, so…" Your voice quiets and you stop, staring at the table.

Everyone is silent, and you clench your fists. They surely think you're a freak now; you've only got one leg. What good are you to anyone?

You can't take the silence anymore, so you look up, prepared to tell them they can leave if they want, but when you see Michiru's face you stop, startled.

There are tears in her eyes, and she looks absolutely horrified. Now you've done it. You've freaked her out. You knew you shouldn't have told them, you should have just pretended your leg was still healing-

Usagi suddenly has her arms around you as she cries softly into your shoulder. Michiru gets up from her seat and comes over to stand behind you. She runs her fingers through your short blonde hair. And she speaks, very, very softly.

"Oh, Haruka. I'm so, so sorry."

They both know what this means for you. They knew your love of running and they know it must have broken your heart. And it did. And so you're unable to hold it in any longer. Your whole body shudders and you gasp quietly, and Michiru makes a sympathetic sound and pets your hair.

When Setsuna finds you, she looks puzzled by the sight of you all holding each other and crying, but in classic Setsuna fashion she doesn't ask questions. She just leaves it alone, looking almost as if she already knows what's going on. She remains silent and lets you cry yourself dry.


End file.
